Racism behind global silence on Gaza
"Because of racism, that's the simple answer," she said when asked by a member of the press on why she thought so many countries and governments around the world were ignoring what was happening in Gaza.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg talks to journalists upon her arrival to Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport, as she left Israel on a flight to Sweden via France, after she was detained along with other activists aboard a Gaza-bound aid boat, on June 10, 2025. Thunberg departed Israel on a flight from Tel Aviv to Sweden (via France). - (Photo by HUGO MATHY / AFP)
SHAH ALAM - Swedish Greta Thunberg says racism is the reason behind the global community's silence on the crisis in Gaza.
Speaking to the media at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France following her deportation from Israel, Thunberg criticised the world's failure to confront Israel's actions in Gaza.
"Because of racism, that's the simple answer," she said when asked by a member of the press on why she thought so many countries and governments around the world were ignoring what was happening in Gaza. Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg talks to journalists upon her arrival to Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport, as she left Israel on a flight to Sweden via France, after she was detained along with other activists aboard a Gaza-bound aid boat, on June 10, 2025. - (Photo by HUGO MATHY / AFP)
She attributed the world's silence to racism and a desperate attempt to defend a destructive and deadly system that systematically puts short-term economic profit and maximising geopolitical power over the well-being of humans and the planet.
She added that the efforts to morally justify such a system were "absurd" and there were no words to fully capture the depth of the crisis or the denial surrounding it.
It was reported that Thunberg flew out of Tel Aviv on Tuesday, bound for Sweden via France.
Upon her arrival in Paris, she told reporters that she and her fellow pro-Palestinian activists had been kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli forces.
The activists were on board the Freedom Flotilla Coalition's (FFC) yacht, the Madleen en-route to Gaza. Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg talks to journalists upon her arrival to Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport, as she left Israel on a flight to Sweden via France, after she was detained along with other activists aboard a Gaza-bound aid boat, on June 10, 2025. - (Photo by HUGO MATHY / AFP)
The Madleen departed from Catania in Sicily, southern Italy on June 1 carrying essential humanitarian cargo including food, baby formula, medical supplies and other life-saving aid foor the beseiged population of Gaza.
According FFC, the Israeli forces had unlawfully boarded the ship, detained its unarmed crew and confiscated the cargo.
Legal rights group Adalah was reported saying that Israel had treated all 12 activists as if they "illegally entered" the country, despite forcibly detaining them in international waters and transferring them into its territory against their will.
It was also reported Israel had imposed a 100-year entry ban on each of them.
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